Many evangelicals today consider corporate worship as simply a Christian’s expression of authentic devotion toward God. Yet corporate worship is not merely expressive; corporate worship is formative. This is how corporate worship fits into the Great Commission: the liturgy of a church shapes the liturgy of life.
Every church has as its mission the making of disciples, but how does that happen? Two weeks ago I made the point that while such discipleship certainly involves teaching truth to the mind, that is not enough since discipleship is more than data transmission. Last week I supported this claim by looking at Scripture itself, which is more than simple a collection of doctrinal propositions; rather, the Spirit-inspired Word contains aesthetic elements that shape the heart and imagination in addition to the mind.
This understanding is a corrective to how we view corporate worship broadly speaking, and music within corporate worship more specifically. Many evangelicals today consider corporate worship as simply a Christian’s expression of authentic devotion toward God. Yet corporate worship is not merely expressive; corporate worship is formative. This is how corporate worship fits into the Great Commission: the liturgy of a church shapes the liturgy of life. How a church worships week in and week out forms the people—it molds their behavior by shaping their inclinations through habitual practices. When people engage in the liturgy that we have provided for them, they will inevitably be shaped by the values and beliefs worn into it. It is in Christian liturgy that a Christian’s heart, as Lewis said, is “organized by trained habits into stable sentiments,” where a Christian’s inclinations are discipled and trained, and where the negative effects of worldly liturgies may be counteracted. In and through corporate worship, believers are built up, formed, and discipled to be Christians who love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind. Corporate worship is not simply a gathering of a group of individual Christians who express praise and thanks to God individually or even corporately; corporate worship is the method through which God creates mature worshipers through the means that he has ordained.
